The following news release is from the Rose Kennedy Greenway Conservancy announcing the resignation of Executive Director, Nancy Brennan. COO Jesse Brackenbury will take charge of daily operations until a replacement is named. The attached pdf shows the press release and includes a list of accomplishments.
Nancy Brennan, Executive Director, accepts new West Coast position
-Greenway celebrates accomplishments of the Conservancy since inception-
Boston – December 17, 2012 – The Rose Kennedy Greenway Conservancy announced today that Nancy Brennan, Executive Director of the Conservancy for over seven years, has accepted a position as the Chief Philanthropy Officer of the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco. Brennan will depart the Conservancy, effective January 15, 2013.
Nancy Brennan is the first Executive Director of the Rose Kennedy Greenway Conservancy. She was hired in April 2005 just before the overhead highway was dismantled to make way for 1.3 miles of parkland under the banner of “Open, Green, Excellent and Welcoming to All.” The Central Artery Project created the Greenway in association with the City of Boston and many civic groups. The non-profit Conservancy was founded as the official steward of the Greenway and undertook daily operations in early 2009. At that time, the Conservancy was charged with raising broad based support to ensure standards of excellence for the Greenway’s design, sustainability and use Greenway.
“The Greenway Conservancy is delivering on the promise of a vibrant, beautiful, innovative city park. I have been proud to be part of its story,” said Nancy Brennan. “I like to say, ‘It takes a village to run the Greenway.’ None of this would have been possible without the remarkably talented and committed individuals who were the board, committees and staff of the Greenway Conservancy over the past seven years.”
“Nancy Brennan has been an extraordinary executive director of the Greenway in its formative years. Under her leadership, the park has taken shape. Among its signature programs, the Greenway is one of the country’s only organically-maintained public parks and is host to the Green & Grow career development program for seventeen to twenty-year-olds who come from low-income and immigrant families in Boston that combines training in park operating tasks and responsibilities, academic improvement, and mentoring.” according to Georgia Murray, Chair of the Greenway Conservancy.
The Greenway Conservancy Board will undertake the process to recruit a new Executive Director. “The Board recognizes that in today’s world, the Executive Director of a non-profit organization must have a diversity of strengths which include fund raising, stakeholder engagement, and community involvement. The Conservancy will seek a new Executive Director who has expertise to continue the vision of the Greenway to serve as great public realm space for the Commonwealth”, according to Board Chair Georgia Murray.
The Conservancy is charged with raising new revenues given diminishing state funds that currently make up approximately 40% of the Conservancy budget. The Conservancy developed a 5-year business plan that was presented to MassDOT in July, 2012. As part of that business plan, the Conservancy will increase private funding for the annual operations of the parks, including robust horticulture, public events, art and amenities, plus a crucially- needed annual allowance for repair and replacement of park infrastructure.
Jesse Brackenbury, the Chief Operating Officer, will continue to run the day-to-day operations until the Board hires a new Executive Director. Brackenbury also will oversee this year’s addition of an iconic and permanent carousel in a newly landscaped setting (projected September 2013), and future installations of temporary and contemporary public art.
At the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, Brennan will undertake a new leadership position under Dr. Jay Xu, Director and CEO, to engage more national and international philanthropists to support the museum’s educational mission.
The Asian Art Museum is one of San Francisco’s premier arts institutions and home to a world-renowned collection of more than 18,000 Asian art treasures spanning 6,000 years of history. The building is the result of a dramatic transformation of San Francisco’s former main public library in 2003 by noted Italian architect Gae Aulenti. Through rich art experiences, centered on historic and contemporary artworks, the museum unlocks the past for visitors, bringing it to life, while serving as a catalyst for new art, new creativity, and new thinking.
The Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway Conservancy is a private, non-profit corporation dedicated to raising broad-based support to ensure standards of excellence in the design, sustainability and use of the Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway.
###
Praise the Lord! NR